Safety razor



March 23, 1943. N. TEST! 2,314,564

SAFETY RAZOR Filed May 6, 1942 INVENTOR. I BY .fl'c'fion E555 Patented Mar. 23, 1943 SAFETY RAZOR Nicholas Testi, Boston, Mass., assignor to Gillette Safety Razor Company, Boston, Mass., a corporation of Delaware Application May 6, 1942, Serial No. 441,927

7 Claims.

The present invention relates to safety razors of the type in which a thin flexible blade is shaped and supported on both sides in shaving position by co-operating blade-clamping members. The invention consists more particularly in a flexible blade-clamping member of novel construction for use in such razors. As herein shown the invention is embodied in the cap memher of a razor and in one aspect the invention comprises a cap arranged to shape and clamp a flexible blade in a yielding manner with respect to a rigid guard member.

In safety razors having rigid blade-clamping members these parts must be shaped with extreme accuracy and with so little tolerance as to necessitate substantial manufacturing expense, because unless the co-operating surfaces are accurate counterparts of each other full and complete engagement of the blade is not effected along its entire cutting edge. The blade may be engaged tightly in certain areas and left sufficiently loose to chatter or flutter in other areas to the discomfort of the user.

The dimculties above discussed are obviated in accordance with my invention by making one of the blade-clamping members with yieldable blade-engaging portions which are sufiiciently resilient to follow up the blade along the entire length of both cutting edges and thus insure intimate contact of the blade edge with the underlying or rigid blade-supporting member. For example, the guard member may have a convex blade-supporting face and be of rigid construction, while the cap may have a rigid central section and a flexible body portion presenting a generally concave blade-engaging face. The result is that every portion of the blade is brought into intimate contact with the corresponding portion of the guard regardless of irregularities of contour or low areas which may be present in the guard member.

In addition to the advantageous manner in which the cap of my invention follows up and improves the performance of the blade, the cap has the additional advantage of lightness and of requiring substantially less metal in its construction than has been considered necessary in caps heretofore manufactured. Accordingly, the manufacturer by using the novel construction of my invention not only improves the performance of the razor embodying it but may effect an important saving in the cost of material and in the labor of producing the razor. Moreover, since the body of the cap may be constructed of thin spring metal, its edge can be located close to the actual cutting edge of the blade without interfering with the shaving operation, thus improving the supporting function of the cap by the favorable location of its area of support on the blade. I";

These and other features of the invention will be best understood and appreciated from the following description of one preferred embodiment thereof, selected for purposes of illustration and shown in the accompanying drawing, in which:

Fig. 1 is a view in side elevation, partly in section showing the razor in released condition;

Fig. 2 is a view in side elevation showing the head of the razor in blade-clamping condition;

Fig. 3 is a View of the razor head in longitudinal section;

Fig. 4 is a plan View of the razor head with a portion of the cap broken away to expose the blade;

Fig. 5 is a plan view of a cap of modified construction, shown in inverted position; and

Fig. 6 is an end view of a cap of still a different construction.

My invention is herein shown as embodied in a safety razor employing a thin flexible doubleedged blade, although it will be apparent that it is within the scope of the invention to embody it in safety razors employing single-edge blades. As herein shown the razor comprises an elongated guard member iil generally rectangular in shape and provided with parallel longitudinal slots defining at each edge a guard bar H which is spaced from the body of the guard member except at its ends. The guard member is of solid brass or steel or of suitable pressed sheet metal and is provided with a central hole l2 through which the retaining stem of the razor cap passes with clearance. Its blade-supporting face is upwardly convexed and bounded by fulcrum shoulders over which the blade may be flexed.

The guard It rests upon the upper end of a handle l3 shown as having a hollow barrel and a solid head bored longitudinally and threaded to receive clamping means which will presently be described.

The cap has a rigid central longitudinal section, herein shown as comprising a fiat bar l5 placed horizontally and of sufficient dimensions to be substantially stifi in the razor assembly. The body of the capcomprises a sheet metal plate 14 of tempered steel, phosphor bronze or the like. This is fastened by rivets 9 to the rigid bar i5 and in symmetrical relation the-reto. Its opposite sides extend outwardly in the curve of an arc from the central bar I5 so that the cap as a whole presents a transverse concave curvature which is considerably more pronounced than the convex blade-shaping face of the guard III. To the under or inner side of the flat bar I5 is attached in edge-wise relation a narrow blade-locating rib IT. This is provided with a fiat downwardly extending stem I8 which is threaded to fit the threaded socket of the handle I3 and of substantially the same thickness as the blade-locating rib I! so that it may pass freely through the blade-locating aperture of a blade designed to fit the rib II. It does not completely fill the socket except in one diameter but that is suflicient to make secure clamping engagement, so that when the handle I3 is rotated the cap may be drawn downwardly into clamping engagement with the blade through the threadedconnection thus established. The rib I1 is provided with a series of upstanding rivets I 9 (herein shown as three in number) which are designed to pass through the flat bar I5 and the sheet metal cap I4 and to be headed over upon the latter so that the three component parts of the cap are permanently secured together.

, The blade herein shown is of Well-known commercial construction consisting of thin flexible sheet steel .004 to .007" in thickness, sharpened at both longitudinal edges. It has elongated unsharpened end portions 2i and a longitudinal and symmetrically disposed blade-locating slot 22. The slot 22 is designed to co-operate with the blade-locating rib I"! of the cap and to fit over this when the blade 29 is presented to the razor.

-In clamping the blade in place for shaving the handle I3 is rotated and the cap drawn down by its threaded stem I3. This clamping action sets the guard member Iil firmly upon the end of the handle, drawing the fiat bar I5 down into positive contact with the blade and drawing the yielding side sections of the cap into firm and yielding engagement with the blade adjacent to its cutting edges. The cap is resilient and stiffer than the blade itself so that the side portions of the cap act to press the blade yieldingly and continuously into contact with the convex face of the guard member and to follow up the blade locally wherever there is any irregularity in the contour of the guard surface. The relative position of the parts thus described is shown in Fig. 2 from which it will be seen that the cap I4 has been flattened substantially as compared to its shape in Fig. 1 and that its edges have moved or swept outwardly toward the cutting edges of the blade and come to rest just above the fulcrum shoulders of the guard.

Fig. 5 illustrates a cap slightly modified over that shown in Fig, 3 in that its side portions are transversely slitted to form a series of five yielding tongues on each side of the horizontal bar I5. In Fig. 6 is illustrated a cap further modified in construction in that it has formed in its central zone a rectangular channel corresponding in outline to the flat bar I5 of Figs. 1-3. In this cap, as in those already described, a thin upright rib 37 is secured by rivets 39 to the longitudinal channel and is provided with a fiattened stem 38 having a screw thread formed therein.

In clamping the blade in shaving position between the cap and guard members the narrow rib I! in the embodiments illustrated in Figs. 3 and 5 acts as a positive spacer to limit the final clamping position of the two members. This may be determined by the manufacturer as a proper clamping position for regular standard shaving. It can always be reproduced by all users and does not depend upon the strength applied in the clamping operation which has heretofore varied from user to user. A definite reference point is, therefore, provided from which the user may have increased edge exposure by releasing the tension of the threaded handle on the stem I8 but all possibility is obviated of carrying the clamping pressure further than is determined by the height or thickness of the rib II. In the embodiment of Fig. 6 the same result is secured by the intermediate channel configuration of the cap wherein a longitudinal rib is provided.

Having thus disclosed my invention and described in detail preferred embodiments thereof, I claim as new and desire to secure by Letters Patent:

1. A safety razor comprising co-operating blade-clamping members for co-operation Withan interposed flexible blade, one of said members having a central longitudinal rigid bar bearing against the juxtaposed face of the blade and flexible blade-engaging sections disposed on both sides of the bar and constructed and arranged to follow up the blade locally wherever there is any irregularity in the other blade-clamping member,

2. A safety razor comprising co-operating blade-clamping members for co-operation with an interposed flexible blade, one of said members having a rigid longitudinally disposed bar arranged to bear against the juxtaposed face of the blade, when the clamping members are drawn together, and transversely extending spring sections arranged to make yielding contact with the blade adjacent to its cutting edges and to press the blade into contact with the other bladeclamping member.

3. A safety razor comprising a guard member having a convex blade-shaping face, and a cooperating cap having a resilient concave portion with blade-engaging edges, a fiat rigid bar symmetrically secured thereto, and a blade-locating projection upon the innner face of said fiat bar.

4. A safety razor comprising cap and guard members for co-operation with an interposed flexible blade, one of said members being rigid and determining the shape of the blade and the other comprising a series of separate transverse sections independently yielding to press the blade along its entire length into contact with the said rigid member.

5. A safety razor comprising cap and guard members for co-operation with an interposed flexible blade having an aperture therein, one of said members being rigid and determining the shape of the blade and the other being resilient and pressing the blade along its entire length into contact with said rigid member, and a positive spacer passing through the aperture of the blade and limiting the final clamping position of the cap and guard members.

6. A safety razor comprising cap and guard members for co-operation with an interposed flexible blade having a long central slot therein, one of said members being rigid and determining the shape of the blade and the other being resilient and pressing the blade adjacent to its entire edge into contact with said rigid member, and an elongated rib carried by the cap of the blade and the cap having a long flat bar overlying the blade, a narrow rib passing through the slot in the blade into engagement with the guard and a spring side portion pressing the blade into contact with the guard throughout the length of the blade.

NICHOLAS TESTI. 

